UW, Arizona set sights on 2-7 record
Following a 28-14 loss to Oregon State at home last weekend, Arizona tight end Steve Fleming was as certain about the immediate future of his football team as he was that the sun would rise again in the desert.
“We know we’re better than Washington,” the senior co-captain told the Portland Oregonian. “Our records may be similar, but we know we’re the better team.”
Glad somebody does, because for everyone else these two struggling college football programs that meet Saturday at Husky Stadium are indistinguishable.
The Huskies played Oregon State. They hosted them, too, and lost 29-14.
Washington and Arizona are 1-7 teams looking squarely in the mirror and grimacing at the same sorry image.
“There are a lot of parallels,” first-year Arizona coach Mike Stoops concurred. “I was looking at the statistics, and we’re a little better on defense and they’ve got a few more yards. Our third-down conversion rate is identical. There are a lot of similarities. We both beat ourselves in a lot of areas.”
The Huskies have scored 13 touchdowns this season, Arizona 12. Both have rushed to the end zone a piddling six times.
UW has accumulated 137 first downs, 10 more than the Wildcats, and has an extra 91 rushing and 99 passing yards. Pulling them ever closer, Arizona averages 4.5 yards per play, the Huskies 4.2.
Punting the ball, Arizona averages 39.8 yards per kick, the UW 39.6.
In the third quarter this season, both teams have scored 27 points.
On third down, they both convert 32 percent of the time.
It’s apparent these are two Top 25 basketball schools biding their time until the first tipoff.
“We have a fragile football team,” said Stoops, a noted tough guy who left his brother Bob’s Oklahoma football team to become a head coach. “We’ve needed something good to happen.”
Program instability represents more common ground, although Arizona has had its rebuilding process under Stoops in full swing for 11 months. The Huskies only this week finalized an impending coaching change at season’s end, going from Keith Gilbertson and staff to persons unknown.
Each team has had major upheaval at quarterback, with the Huskies bouncing from junior Casey Paus to redshirt freshman Carl Bonnell to Paus to sophomore Isaiah Stanback and back to Paus as starters. Arizona opened with sophomore Kris Heavner for six games before turning everything over to redshirt freshman Richard Kovalcheck.
“Kris was not getting it done,” Stoops said bluntly. “We gave him five or six games. We didn’t feel we were getting any better or he was getting better. We didn’t feel Kris was making good decisions. I like Richard’s toughness. He’s seeing the field a little better than Kris.
“Our plan for the rest of the season is to give Richard an opportunity to see how he grows.”
The Huskies will stick with Paus, although he doesn’t inspire confidence in everyone. Consider this comment from someone closely associated to the team, who would prefer his name and job not be disclosed: “When was the last time you saw a University of Washington football team without a quarterback?”
No outward disrespect intended, but by Pac-10 standards, Saturday’s match-up practically represents a junior varsity game.
For freshmen looking to play right away, Seattle and Tucson are the places to be. Last weekend, the Huskies used 17 against Oregon, starting three. Arizona put 14 on the field against Oregon State, opening with seven.